In 1993 the World Bank allowed people to seek recourse for harm resulting from the projects it finances in developing countries. Within a decade of the World Bank Inspection Panel, the other Multilateral Development Banks, including the World Bank Group, the Asian, African and Inter-American Development Banks and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development would create similar accountability mechanisms. These accountability mechanisms embody a norm of ‘accountability as justice’ that seeks to provide recourse for environmentally and socially damaging behaviour through a formal sanctioning process. The norm has now spread to other development financiers. Until now, no explanation has been provided for their creation, how they function, and whether they hold the Banks to account. My book The Good Hegemon: US Power, Accountability as Justice, and the Multilateral Development Banks answers these questions with three central arguments: the US pushed for the norm, the Banks tried to resist, but the norm has become entrenched as a corrective to Bank actions rather than pre-emptive justice norm.
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